Centaur Software in the Latin Classroom

In the Latin Classroom I use the Cambridge Latin Course which is a series of text books. Another company has developed software that goes hand-in-hand with the text books.

The computer program allows students to practice vocabulary, noun forms, verb forms, and other grammar forms and word-endings. For this, the program is pretty good. The programs are actually called "drills" and that is really what they do.

The programs do have some limitations though and they can be very frustrating. First of all, the board will not put the software onto the board server. So when I use it, I have top copy the program onto each and every computer in a lab. That is time consuming. Also, the board can re-image the computers at any given time and when that happens, my program is eliminated and I have to start again. Imagine having to reload your software four times a year.....

Next, the program requires a student to identify words and word-endings exactly. For word endings this is fine, but for vocabulary words, this doesn't always work. The Latin word iubeo means "to order" but it can also mean "to command". If a student writes the wrong one down, the computer will not accept the answer. If a student forgets to write the word "to" the computer will not accept the answer. Now there is a mechanism whereby a teacher can add to the vocabulary choices for given words, but there is a maximum number of entries. But some Latin words can have 6 or more vocabulary meanings. So allowing me to add 3 extra meanings is good, but still doesn't give the students full options. Also, remember how the board can wipe my program off the computer when they reimage the system? I would have to manually walk around and add the additional words, one word at a time to every computer in a lab. And then I could only use that one lab in the school.

Nevertheless, it is a good tool, but it is VERY time consuming for the reasons above and there are entire semesters when I just do not have the energy to reload the computer program - yet again - for my students.

Cheers,
Dan